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Equal Chance Program
The Equal Chance Program (ECP for short) is a social program created by Keene Milton, although most of the Milton ferrets take some part in running it. The program was created as one of Keene Milton’s efforts to fight for animal rights. It focuses on giving individual animals the opportunity of participating in human society with the same freedoms as humans. Some examples are the wolves who got tired of feral life, King who was transformed into a dog and then abandoned, and Sasha who was abused by her previous owner. History The human owner of the Milton ferrets, Henry Milton, was a multi-billionaire who founded Babylon Gardens to be a “pet-friendly neighborhood” and had the life-long goal of achieving equality between animals and humans. The Milton ferrets call this his “plan”. He died with no children, and his “beloved pet ferrets” inherit most of his fortune. The ferrets quickly begin spending the money recklessly and impulsively. Not much later, Keene Milton, the “chief” of the ferrets, admits to feeling guilty about not continuing their father’s plan. For this reason, he decides to take in the feral wolf pack under his protection and give them the chance of participating in human society as part of a “social program”. And so, the Equal Chance Program is born. Throughout its existence, the ECP has and continues to support and shelter many of the characters of Housepets. See the “Members” section for a complete list. Almost ten years after he created the program, Keene decides to retire from leading the fight for equality. He realizes that his aggressive pursuit of equality was negatively impacting the ones he wanted to help, so he leaves his sister Lana Milton to take control of the Equal Chance Program. He instead becomes an advisor for Lana. In the events of “My Life as a teenage Squirrel, part 5”, it’s revealed that Herman Steward is attempting to bankrupt Keene Milton by transforming humans into animals with a cursed golden coin from Pete’s temple. Steward is himself a victim of the curse, having been turned into a badger in the events of “Temple Crashers 2: Epilogue Crashers”. Since Steward used to oversee the Milton’s economy, he knows that the ECP is in financial trouble. He also knows that Keene can’t turn down animals who want help from the ECP. Therefore, by cursing humans into becoming animals, he hopes that he might ruin Keene financially. Members 'The Wolf Pack' The wolves are the very first members of the Equal Chance Program. By exploiting loopholes in the pet ownership laws, Keene Milton can legally own the wolves as his own pets even though he is an animal himself. Instead of treating the wolves like pets, though, he gives them their own house in Babylon Gardens and relative independence from him. Keene is worried that these unusual circumstances will attract attention and backlash from the public, so he makes sure all the legal requirements are met. This means that all the wolves must pass the General Obedience Exam (GOE) which is given to feral animals who wish to be pets. He then hires the adult males as security guards for the Milton Estate. Many years later, the ferrets decide to move onto the so called “second phase” of the Equal Chance Program, where the members are encouraged to find a job among humans and further integrate into human society. Miles quickly finds work as a substitute teacher where he’s addressed as “Mr. The Wolf”, and his cubs become students at the same school. Poncho becomes a zoo wolf part-time, and the two Daryl’s become cooks. Natalie had by that time already started working at a call center, and Jack finds work at a legitimate pawn shop. 'King' At the end of "Dog Days of Summer", Pete the Gryphon is forced to abandon King, so he joins the ECP instead. Keene Milton then tells him that he is now owned by the ferret, although this isn’t “technically true for three separate legal reasons”. This further demonstrates that the ECP takes advantage of loopholes and legal gray-areas in order to operate. King moves into the wolf house and has lived there since. When the ECP moves onto the "second phase", Lana Milton tells King that he has to find himself a job so he can support himself and further integrate into human society, but King hasn't found one yet. 'Karishad' Karishad, one of the foxes at the zoo, manages to trap Keene Milton in the ferret enclosure for several months for no apparent reason. Despite his anger at him, Keene concludes that Karishad has a unique set of skills that could be very useful in his pursuit of animal equality, even though he might be unpredictable. So, when Keene finally gets out of the zoo, he hires Karishad to work for him. Since Karishad was a zoo animal, it’s safe to assume that Keene had to buy him out and become his legal owner. This would make him part of the ECP. Keene probably offered him a place at the wolf house as well, but Karishad chose to live in Pete’s temple until its destruction in the “Temple Crashers 2” story arcs, after which he moved in with Jessica and the other forest critters. 'Bailey' After she marries King, Bailey is more frequently seen staying with him and the wolves at the wolf house. She is still owned by her “dad”, Bill Lindberg, but he has agreed to give her the freedom to live with her new husband and be financially supported by the ECP. After having their puppies, Bailey practically moves in with King and the wolves. 'Olive, Ace, and Rook' Before King and Bailey’s wedding, Bill Lindberg, Bailey’s owner, asks Keene Milton who would own the couple’s future puppies. Keene tells him that he’s “missing the point”. This implies that, although one of them is required to own the puppies on paper, they come to the agreement that King and Bailey will have control of their own puppies just like a human family. So, when Bailey gives birth to Olive, Ace, and Rook, the three puppies become the newest members of the ECP in every practical sense 'Gale and Pueblo' Gale is a cougar who used to live with the wolves in the forest, and Pueblo is her young cub. In the events of “Call o’ th’ Wild”, Gale finds out that the wolves left the forest all those years ago because they joined civilization. She decides to do the same, and quickly becomes a successful business-woman. Although it’s never explained, it’s safe to assume that she and her cub became part of the ECP in order to integrate into human society. 'Marion and Lois' During the “My Life as a Teenage Squirrel” story arcs, Marion and Lois, a teenage human couple, are cursed to live as animals: Marion becomes a squirrel, and Lois becomes a bobcat. In order to return to their former lives as much as possible, they seek the assistance of the ECP, whose members have experience with supernatural human-to-animal transformation. But this phenomenon has never been heard of in society at large, so Marion and Lois have a lot of trouble being accepted as the humans they used to be. Despite this, they seem to have found their places in society again. On top of that, the ECP has paid for their entire education. 'Sasha' Sasha has a long history of being abused by her previous owner, Mr. Hartford. He would lock her out in the cold when she failed to get him “babes” at parties and make her do everything around the house. When she began dating Kevin, he started investigating the abuse and building up a case against her owner. In “Be Mine”, it’s confirmed that Sasha has finally been legally separated from her owner and become a member of the Equal Chance Program. She now lives in the wolf house with King, Bailey, their puppies, and the wolves. Trivia * In “From The Inside Out”, the alt-text (which appears when you hover the mouse on top of the comic) reveals that only two of the wolves actually took the General Obedience Exam (GOE) in order to be certified tame. * The Equal Chance Program isn’t mentioned by its name until King is abandoned by Pete the Gryphon and joins the program. That’s when Miles tells him that the ferrets have chosen to take him aboard the Equal Chance Program (see the panel at the top of the page). Category:Political Category:Milton Ferrets